Skip to main content

Happy July 4th!!!


Two suitable images by reenactors for the July 4th holiday.  Not my particular cup of tea, but you've got to hand it to the  people who take the time, effort, and spend the money to get it just right.

Almost finished applying white gesso basecoat to those 30 RSM95 cavalry.  Then, it will be time to start painting in earnest.  First, I'll apply the usual alkyd oil flesh wash to faces, followed by an acrylic yellow undercoat to the horses before a dark brown oil glaze (Burnt Umber), black cavalry boots, and then the main uniform colors.  
 
My son, the Young Master, wandered by yesterday afternoon and asked when I would be all finished painting soldiers.  I replied that, much like a flower garden, one is never quite done when it comes to painting, collecting, and playing with soldiers.  You could probably say that for many other hobbies as well.  Happy Independence Day everyone.  KA-BOOM!!!

-- Stokes

Comments

Stryker said…
Happy Revolution Day (as we prefer to say this side of the pond) - have a good one!
10:37 AM
Wellington Man said…
Many Happy Returns from one of the loyal parts. This means we get to keep the Queen. And Tea drinking. And Dr Who.
1:46 PM
Fitz-Badger said…
"I replied that, much like a flower garden, one is never quite done when it comes to painting, collecting, and playing with soldiers. You could probably say that for many other hobbies as well."

Very true, and one of the enduring reasons we enjoy these hobbies, I believe.

Happy Independence Day!
6:33 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

And We're Off!!!

  Arrrgh!  Gotta go back into camera settings on my iPhone to bring all of the frame into focus.  Blast! Painting is underway on the 60 or so Minden Austrians, which are slated to become my version of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment of AWI renown.  More or less indistinguishable from Austrians of the era really, right down to the red facings and turnbacks, but the eventual flags (already in my files) will set them apart.   I went ahead and based-coated all of them over a couple of days lthe last week of August, using a mix of light gray and white acrylic gesso, before next applying my usual basic alkyd oil flesh tone to the faces and hands.  In a day or two, I'll hit that with Army Painter Flesh Wash to tone things down a bit and bring some definition to the faces and hands.   As usual, the plan is to focus on about 20 figures at a time, splitting the regiment roughly into thirds along with the color party and regimental staff.  Depending on ...
6 comments
Read more

The 18th century? What's the Fascination?

Hessian musketeers by All the King's Men Toy Soldiers of Snellville, Georgia, U.S.A. Just a quick post post today, but I thought the above question might be interesting food for thought. Obviously, there is an array of possible periods, theaters, and conflicts that might catch our eyes. But what is it about the era 1700-1799 -- either real, or imagined? Is it the commanders and politics? The fairly straightforward tactics? The myriad of uniforms and flags? The variety and scope of the conflicts? The patchwork of various and sundry petty states, (at least in Central Europe)? I'm very interested to learn your thoughts. Don't be a lurker! Please leave a comment -- or even two or three. Have a nice day everyone!
35 comments
Read more

Sunday Morning Coffee with AI. . .

    A rmed with a second cup of fresh, strong coffee, I messed around a bit this morning with artlist.io using its image to image function in an attempt to convert my hand-drawn map from September 2006 to something that more resembles an old map from the mid-18th century.  And just like my experiments with Ninja AI in June, the results are mixed.   The above map is pretty good, but Artlist keeps fouling up the place names and has trouble putting a faint overlay of hexes across the entire area.  Hexes, admittedly, are not likely to be found on any genuine maps from the era in question, but there we are.  Frankly, I prefer the appearance of the Ninja map, but there were problems getting it to correct its errors.  Grrrr.  As is the case with so much having to do with the various AI's out there now, the output generated is a direct result of the prompts entered.  For text alone, and when you develop a lengthy, highly detailed prompt, it is...
3 comments
Read more